Category: The Granville Chambers

With every justification he’s been described as a punk rock polymath and it’s clear that, in middle age, the barely contained intensity that drove his music has found a parallel in the relentless curiosity that fuels his wandering. I caught up with him over Christmas 2009 just after he returned from eight weeks in Saudi Read More…

A voice of sweet reason in sour times, Stewart Lee knows what it feels like to put your head in the metaphorical lion’s mouth. And has a pretty good idea of what it’s like when the jaws snap shut. Not that he’s complaining. Well, not much. Lee has been performing stand up comedy for more Read More…

Just when you think you’ve got it all sorted out in your own mind, just when you think you know how everything works, you can guarantee something comes along that blows you right out of the water. Every time. It’s the early summer of 2007 and Smokey Robinson is due in Bournemouth. I request an Read More…

It’s the summer of 2006 and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, the second in the yo-ho-ho franchise, is about to be released. The first film was a runaway success, but there was some doubt about whether or not a sequel would do as well. What was way beyond doubt though was that Johnny Depp Read More…

It’s late autumn in the year 2000 and the Britpop party was over long ago, leaving its most creative mixers with almighty post-Millennial hangovers. One of its most dedicated bons vivants, Alex James is sitting at his glass-topped kitchen table in the basement of his home in Seven Dials, off Covent Garden. Over there is Read More…

Al Pacino, I mean Al Pacino… Al-flaming-Pacino is talking to me… It’s March 2000 and he’s in the Dorchester Hotel at the press junket for his new movie, Any Given Sunday, a muscular sports drama from director Oliver Stone set against the backdrop of the American football industry. Pacino plays ageing coach Tony D-Amato who Read More…